(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) More than 60 people were injured Monday when Philippine police used water canons to tackle protesters who tried to break through barricades before President Benigno Aquino III delivered his final state of the nation address.
News site Rappler reported at least 62 people, including 21 police officers, were injured in a clash that broke out in front of a popular shopping mall along Commonwealth Avenue.
Protesters -most of whom were from left wing groups - had tried to break down a barbed wire and container van barricade set up around two kilometers from the House of Representatives in Quezon City where Aquino gave his speech.
GMA News reported that police fired water cannons at the protesters, who in return pelted them with rocks and poked them with flagpoles.
Inquirer online cited the secretary-general of Bayan, the Philippines' largest alliance of progressive organizations, as condemning the crackdown.
"The protesters are indignant over the repeated violations of our right to protest. The barriers along Commonwealth [Avenue] are illegal," Renato Reyes said.
Underlining that protesters had marched to defy the illegal blockades and to assert their constitutional rights, Reyes said that Aquino was "showing himself to be the most paranoid and insecure president" during his last state of the nation.
More than 6,000 officers had been deployed in the area to deal with protesters who were voicing criticism over what they see to be the Aquino government's failure to deal with poverty, oil price increases and violations of human rights.
In Estancia town to the northeast of Iloilo city, the Inquirer website reported that around 1,000 people - mostly survivors of Supertyphoon Yolanda in Nov. 2013 € demonstrated against how housing assistance had not been distributed.
Meanwhile, anti-mining advocates and church and environmental groups in Antique province called for accountability for two mining accidents that left 19 workers dead in a local pit over the past 29 months.
GMA news-site reported that the president appeared disappointed as he left the podium following his speech.
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